The Football Forecast

Sané to challenge Sterling?

With Manchester City signing Leroy Sané from FC Schalke for £37 million, it is believed that Sterling will be forced to challenge for his place in Pep Guardiola’s new era.

Predominantly, Sané plays as a right-winger but can also play on the left when required to. With Pep having the attacking midfield options of Kevin De Bruyne, Samir Nasri, David Silva, Nolito, Jesús Navas and Raheem Sterling, many believe that it is to be Sterling who will be dropped. City are more than likely to opt for Sergio Agüero up front with De Bruyne and one other player in a front three. This is normally how Guardiola plays, with one pivot midfielder, two next to him and then an attacking trio. The player in the front three alongside De Bruyne and Aguero is likely to be Sterling or Sané.

Sterling and Sané’s strengths are similar which are pace, and dribbling. One area both payers must improve upon is being clinical in front of goal. Sterling scored six goals last term and, Sané scored eight last term which is a mere 14 goals between them. The German youngster made more assists, however Sterling created more chances and made more key passes. However Sané completed over the double the amount of successsful take-ons’ that Sterling did. One of the main criticisms which Sterling faced is that he failed to show up in a lot of the so-called ‘big games’ for City and eventually lost his place in the side to Jesús Navas due to his poor performances and injuries. Sané, on the other hand played thirty-three games during the 15/16 campaign out of a possible thirty–four, and was selected for Germany’ Euro 2016 squad, as was Sterling for England.

Sterling lost his place in the Man City side due to his poor performances and injuries

Sterling had a very disappointing Euro’s most notably the Wales game, where early on he missed a glorious opportunity to put England in the lead and was undoubtedly one of the flops of the tournament. Sané on the other hand didn’t get much playing time in the Euro’s with the world champions crashing out to the semi-finals to France. Regardless of this, Sané has been dubbed as one of the best talents Germany has to offer. Germany haven’t had too many attacking talents in years gone by, so Sané will have a lot to live up to. Sterling however has lost the attention in the media spotlight as the future of England to other young players such as Dele Alli and Harry Kane

Sterling was one of City’s best performers in the Champions League group stages, that aside however, Sterling suffered a lot of criticism in the media last season mostly down to his poor performances in the Premier League and the pressure that was on him due to the hefty price tag paid for him. This is also added on to him joining City from Liverpool, whom towards there is arguably a strong media bias. There won’t be as much pressure on Sané as he is not English and City did not pay as much as they did for Sterling. Similarly it is likely he won’t receive as much praise as other English youngsters such as Rashford, Alli, Kane or even Sterling himself, simply because they are English.

Both players will undoubtedly improve under Guardiola, however both players will need to become more clinical in front of goal, to source the goals which City have missed in the last two seasons due to the decline of the ageing Yaya Touré. The lack of goals from the Ivorian has seen City go a step back from the title in the last two seasons. City are heavily reliant on Agüero and De Bruyne, and will be looking to Sané and Sterling to ease the reliance on both of them and account for the lack of goals from Yaya Touré

Sterling briefly showed some special moments of what he can do in last seasons Champions League group stages.